Contacts:
Joseph E. Mwantuali, Ph.D.
1st Vice-President, RNS
Tel. (315)859-4334
e-mail: jmwantu@hamilton.edu
 

The Rally for A New Society (R.N.S) would like to thank the United Nations for organizing the unprecedented meeting on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo from January 24-28, 2000. We also thank the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, the Honorable Richard Holbrooke for taking the lead on this initiative.

The RNS has always supported the Lusaka Agreements. They echoed our "Eleven Point Plan" to resolve the conflict in the Congo and the Great Lakes Region  (See  http://www.congozaire.org). We are convinced that the Lusaka Agreements are the only way to achieve peace and stability.

The RNS also commends the UN Security Council for making progress in resolving this conflict. We now are at stage three: sending a UN Peace Keeping Force to the Congo.  Five thousand five hundred (5,500) men and women is an encouraging starting number, but we beseech UN Security Council to make decisive steps that will keep the process moving forward. It will  be necessary to send to this vast country (1/4 the size of the USA) a minimum of 30,000 men and women to keep the situation under control and start solving the problem once and for all.

The RNS asks the UN Security Council to make sure that the warlords (both rebel leaders, President Kabila and his foreign troops) respect the agreements that they so wisely signed. This means some sanctions (economic or other) should be imposed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the UN on the country or warring group that breaks any of the Lusaka Agreements.

The RNS denounces the selective coverage of world crisis by the American media. The Democratic Republic of Congo is presently going through a crisis worst than that of Kosovo.  The conference that took place this week in New York City was unprecedented.  The UN Security Council met with non member Presidents to solve an African country’s crisis, the American media chose to focus its attention on the necessity of granting citizenship to the young Elian Gonzales over the tragedy that is now taking place in the Central Africa! This is yet further evidence of how little the media in this country care about Africa.